Letter from 1943 resurfaces; daughter says it reconnects her to family

DEKALB, Ill. (WIFR) – An 80-year-old piece of mail resurfaced at the DeKalb Post Office, creating a push on social media to unite the mail with its intended recipient.

The lost letter was addressed to Louis and Lavena George, who lived on S. Sixth Street in DeKalb.

A post office employee tracked down a surviving member of the George family, and delivered the letter to Grace Salazar, who recently moved from the Barb City to Portland, Oregon.

Shortly after, another surviving daughter of the Georges, Jeannette, was able to read the letter.

“It just sort of put me in touch with my parents’ grief.”

“A message from the past, seemingly showing up out of nowhere, that’s pretty incredible,” Jeannette said. “Everybody was just like, ‘My God,’ you know?’ Gobsmacked. Just like, ‘What is this?’”

The letter was sent from her father’s first cousin, sending condolences to the couple, who had recently lost their daughter, Evelyn, to cystic fibrosis.

“I got emotional about it. I mean, losing a child is always horrific,” Jeannette said. “It just sort of put me in touch with my parents’ grief and the losses my family went through before I was even born.”

Now, Jeannette says she is more grateful than ever for her family.

“As I get older, I appreciate more and more the extended family, especially my nieces and nephews. I just have more of a sense of continuity of life, of families,” Jeannette said.

Jeannette and Grace are the only two surviving children of Louis and Lavena George. Louis was born in 1911 and Lavena in 1913. The couple married in 1932.

The post office employee who found the letter says the most likely reason for its disappearance was the lack of a house number in the mailing address.

This article first appeared on fellow CNN affiliate WIFR. It is used here with permission.